


Eternal Nows and Lost Thens

by secretlyasummers



Category: X-Factor (Comics), X-Men (Comicverse)
Genre: F/M, Gen, time travel feels
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-13
Updated: 2019-04-13
Packaged: 2020-01-12 11:32:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,097
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18445688
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/secretlyasummers/pseuds/secretlyasummers
Summary: After some time-travel-gone wrong, Scott Summers briefly gets a chance to reunite with his late wife. And not the late wife you're thinking of.





	Eternal Nows and Lost Thens

Scott Summers – Cyclops – tumbled out of the portal onto the lawn, the grass still glistening with dew accumulated during the night before. Scott took a second to get his wits back together, laying on his back after having just been tossed head over heels. He had taken his team from the New Xavier School, Emma, Erik, Illyana, Alison and himself, after a sighting of Stryfe in San Francisco. A fight broke out, things went poorly, and Scott ended up tossed through one of Stryfe’s teleportation portals.

Scott sighed, reached under his mask, with it’s red and black X over his face, and wiped his brow. He didn’t know where exactly Stryfe’s portal had taken him – he had fallen through by accident, not on purposes – but it probably wasn’t anywhere nice. There could be New Cannanite killers, rogue bands of Marauders, armies of killer Sentinels, some new Age of Apocalypse; anything and everything. Preparing to trigger open his visor, Scott pushed himself to his feet . . . and gasped. Audibly.

Scott knew where he was. He recognized where the portal had left him, in space and time. The clearing in the forest, with the neatly piled stacks of firewood, and the indentation in the grass where a little two-seater prop plane or a larger blackbird would sit. The three-story house, with the whitewashed walls and slate roof, the wide blocks of windows and little outbuilding workshop. He knew that if he walked about five miles east, he’d find his grandparents’ home, and farther from there, the offices of North Star Aviation.

This was the house he used to own. In Alaska.

Cyclops reached for the monitor on his belt, checking the tachyon reading. If the tachyons dipped low enough, soon enough, as they would naturally, he’d be pulled back home soon enough that he wouldn’t have to see, have to talk with –

“Scott?”

The voice was clear and confident, and Scott turned to see a redhead open the door from his old house. She swept her bangs out of her eyes and stepped forward, towards him.

“Hey, Madelyne.”

“Is there something wrong?” Madelyne Pryor, Scott’s late wife, Jean Grey’s clone, the future Goblyn Queen, looked him up and down, hand on her hip, head cocked. “What’s the new costume for? I thought you were—Oh. Is this some time travel thing?”

Scott nodded. “Right.”

“Huh.” She shrugged. “Well, you want a cup of coffee or something? While you wait for your time machine to recharge or whatever?”

Scott blinked. “Um, sure? I guess. I’m waiting for the tachyons to drop—"

“Same difference,” Madelyne interjected.

“But,” Scott continued, “I wouldn’t hate some coffee.”

Madelyne gestured towards the house, and they both started walking towards the door.

“Where’s past me? And Nathan Christopher?”

Madelyne pushed to door open, and Scott made for the kitchen, following her. “You – uh, my you, that is – took Nathan to your grandparents’ house for the afternoon. You know Phillip, he loves keeping an eye on the kid.”

Scott couldn’t help but marvel at the sight of the old house. They had lost so much when Scott ran away, and then when Sinister burned everything down. The few pictures that Scott had managed to keep an eye on, through Milbury and the months on the run. The yearbook that Hank had made, after the first couple of years at the school. All the letters that he and Alex had written each other, before they had been reunited. Most of the stuff that decorated their home had been hers, trinkets and knickknacks she had picked up while working for Continental and other airlines. Seeing all of her things just sort of . . . hurt.

Not as much as seeing her right across from him, though, bright as day. It was like a dagger in his heart.

“So,” Maddie began to say, that easy smile she wore so well on her face, “since I’ve got you, you mind telling me the next couple of Super Bowl winners?”

Scott took a sip of the coffee Madelyne handed him. “I, ah, we’re not supposed to tell about the future during these sorts of things.”

“Spoilsport.” Madelyne poured herself a cup, leaning back against the counter.

“Sorry.”

“Hey, we make some smart bets, we could upgrade the plane!” Maddie laughed, and Scott couldn’t help but smile, quietly.

“What’s wrong with the Cessna?”

“It’s fine for the three of us, sure, but one day there’ll be more then three of us, I’m sure.” Maddie poked him in the shoulder, gently. “You’re from then, I’m sure you know.”

“You know I can’t tell you that.”

“How about lottery numbers? Oooh, Oscar winners?”

Scott laughed, genuinely. He took a step forward, and hugged her, and kissed her on the cheek, quickly.

“I’m a married woman, Mister Summers.”

Scott stepped back, embarrassed. “I’m sorry. I, uh, I really shouldn’t have . . .”

“It’s fine, Scott. I’m just having fun.”

They both sipped their coffee in silence for a moment, then another.

Madelyne reached forward, and gently touched him on the arm. “Scott, can I just be honest with you, for a second? I don’t care, really, about anything else. Not about what happened to me, or to our friends, or anyone. But . . . Scott, Nathan Christopher, he turned out okay, right? You and I, we didn’t do a terrible job raising him, or make some mistake, or . . . or something?”

Scott looked at the woman across from him, at once so much like Jean and so much something unique, all her own, the woman who had made him so happy that day at the mansion, the woman he had walked out on in this very kitchen, the woman who and screamed and cursed at him as the Inferno raged, and couldn’t resist.

“We . . . he’s a good man, now, Madelyne. Better than me. He . . .” Scott knew he shouldn’t tell her, but he felt he owed her _something_. “He’s got a daughter of his own, now. She reminds me of you a lot, really. Willful.”

Madelyne smiled, and took another sip of her coffee. Scott tried to take a sip of his own, and felt the cup nearly slip from his fingers. Scott was growing transparent, the tachyons wearing away as he returned to his own time.

“Hey, Maddie?”

“Mm-hmm?”

“I think I – listen, Madelyne, I want you to know, whatever happens next, I love you. I really do, even when I wouldn’t say it. I was just – I’m sorry, Maddie. I’m so sorry.”

Scott felt the world slipping away, the temporal energies whisking him off, before he could hear her reply.

“Good-bye, Madelyne Pryor.”


End file.
